FP1 & FP2 - Singapore GP report: Renault Sport F1

Key practice points:

— F1 raced under the lights of the spectacular Singapore Marina Bay circuit in FP1 and FP2 today
— Positive performance for the Renault-powered teams, with four cars in the top ten in FP1 and three in the second session
— Daniel Ricciardo (Infiniti Red Bull Racing) finishes FP2 just three tenths from the quickest time; ICE problems for Sebastian Vettel at the end of FP1 necessitates a Power Unit change between sessions
— Strong times for Scuderia Toro Rosso, with Jean-Eric Vergne sixth in FP1 and Daniil Kvyat tenth in FP2
— Good mileage for Caterham F1 Team and Lotus F1 Team

Rémi Taffin, head of track operations:

Performance was positive today, particularly in FP2 when we saw Daniel [Ricciardo] just three tenths from the front. It’s a lot closer than previous events and sets a minimum benchmark for the rest of the weekend. We were confident coming into the weekend that the corners and tight hairpins of Marina Bay would suit us a lot more than the previous two tracks as the advances we have made in driveability have taken us in a good direction. That said, we have to continue to optimize energy management tomorrow so we can push even more from the strategy, and potentially close the gap even further.

While performance has been overall pretty good, with three cars in the top 10 in FP2, we’ve got some work to do on reliability. We had an energy store problem on JEV’s car in FP1 – it seems to be an isolated problem but it’s one we need to get to the bottom of as it’s not the first time it has happened. We also had a problem with the ICE on Sebastian’s car – the oil pressure dropped suddenly at the end of FP1 – and we have to understand why it happened. We will look in more detail at Viry. For now we’ve now changed to the PU that was scheduled for use for the rest of the weekend and will focus fully on the amended run plan tomorrow. Thanks to the guys in the garage who succeeded in changing a PU within three hours.